1. Field
Example embodiments relate to semiconductor devices having an optical transceiver.
2. Description of Related Art
A semiconductor device having an optical transceiver has been proposed and examined to increase communication speed.
In recent years, fabrication of semiconductor memory devices has involved forming optical integrated circuit (IC) devices and electrical IC devices. An optical IC device may receive optical signals from optical fibers disposed outside a semiconductor memory device using a coupler, convert the optical signals into electric signals, and supply current to an electrical IC device.
A coupler may include single-crystalline silicon. Formation of the coupler may include filling in a trench of a bulk silicon substrate with amorphous silicon (a-Si), and single-crystallizing the a-Si using a laser irradiation process. During the single crystallization process, the a-Si may be single-crystallized by a distance of less than about 10 μm using the bulk silicon substrate as single-crystallization seeds. However, single-crystallizing the a-Si by a distance of about 10 μm or more is very difficult.
Although a wide coupler is required to collect a large amount of light, a method may be needed to manufacture a coupler with a total width of more than about 20 μm due to the distance limit (i.e., 10 μm) of a single crystallization reaction.